Member Article

European Investment Bank announces EU funds for Yorkshire and UK regions will continue

EU funds from the European Investment Bank, one of the largest supporters of small businesses in northern England will continue and could be extended to the Midlands, despite speculation over whether they would continue.

There was speculation about their future, as some were fully invested, including Finance Yorkshire, at the end of last year. They require fresh money to keep the infrastructure of fund managers in place.

11 UK regions receive European Regional Development money to allocate to 5 year projects, for 2010-14, North West and North East England and Yorkshire decided to spend a portion on business funding.

They set up “Jeremie” funds (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises) which had £390 million to spend between 2010 and 2014.

The EIB offers loans to match the European regional development money allocated to the Jeremies, which provide equity and debt finance.

They were set up by the UK regional development agencies, which have since been replaced by local enterprise partnerships (Leps). Some regions have five Leps, which must all agree before new funds can be allocated to Jeremies.

Finance Yorkshire announced in December that it had invested its entire £90 million pot and hopes to convince the four regional LEPs to create a similar £10 million interim fund for 2015 to bridge the gap before the 2016-20 period.

James Newman, chairman of Finance Yorkshire, said: “It is … vital that a second Jeremie fund is created in 2015 so that all the good work done by Finance Yorkshire is not lost.”

The fund has made investments in businesses across Yorkshire and Humber including Xeros, the maker of near waterless washing machines which floated in 2014.

Finance Yorkshire says it has created and safeguarded 8,716 jobs, beating targets, and increased collective turnover by £223 million.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .